1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the field of flexible panel-type screens and enclosures. More specifically, the invention relates to methods and an apparatus for temporarily enclosing a space such that climate can be controlled in the temporarily enclosed space.
2. Background Art
A strip door is used to provide climate control in an enclosed area, yet allow free passage of humans, vehicles etc into and out of the enclosed area. A strip door is typically formed from a plurality of flexible plastic strips suspended from a mounting device secured to an upper edge of the opening to be sealed by the strip door. The strips may be formed from clear vinyl to enable visibility therethrough.
Strip doors are most commonly used where a great amount of such passage occurs, and where such passage would require that any other type of door be completely opened to effect such passage. In such cases using any other type of door, the cooling/heating systems used to maintain the selected interior climate either would be inadequate to handle the loss/gain in temperature, or such systems would have to be substantially oversized. Typical applications for strip doors include commercial enclosures such as refrigeration docks, air conditioned warehouses, manufacturing facilities where climates are different in different areas due to process requirements, etc.
Prior art strip doors generally have robust design and permanence of the installations. U.S. Pat. No. 3,331,425 to Groves et al. shows a robust, but complicated, high-cost strip door installation which allows for vehicle passage. The strip door attachment means shown in the '425 patent though automated, is not easily installed in a garage or temporary structure location. U.S. Pat. No. 3,809,144 to Garufo discloses strip door means customized for use in conjunction with aircraft hangers. U.S. Pat. No. 4,232,725 to Gidge shows another complicated strip door mounting device which includes many parts, thus making impractical to install and remove in short order. The door shown in the '725 patent focuses on energy efficiencies, vehicular passage and wind concerns. All the foregoing prior art strip door installation means do not allow flexibility in installation and removal and are relatively costly to make.
Typical strip doors known in the art are not adapted for completely temporary installation. It is desirable to have a strip door that could easily be loaded onto a delivery truck along with other temporary structures, for example, “moon walk” or similar portable, inflatable entertainment devices, and that could be used to enable otherwise non-climate controlled spaces such as residential garages to be used as climate-controlled rooms during an event of temporary duration. Using temporarily enclosed spaces in structures built to withstand inclement weather conditions can be far superior to air conditioned tents or the like and can be provided at a considerably lower cost.
Portable blower and conduit means for temporary rerouting of heating, ventilation and air conditioning (“HVAC”) are used to provide climate control in enclosed areas such as construction sites, commercial structures under modification, hospitals which may have temporary outages of HVAC and the like. Such portable blower and conduit means, however, are not known to be used as temporary HVAC rerouting inside a permanent structure. It is desirable to have temporary rerouting of HVAC using such blower and conduit means to provide temporary HVAC within certain portions of permanent structures that do not require HVAC all the time. As a specific example, a room such as a residential garage, where HVAC climate control is not ordinarily provided, could be used as a temporary extra room. In such cases, where the garage is so used, it would be desirable to have climate control. An additional, portable HVAC unit could be provided, but such unit would incur additional expense. There is a need to be able to use the HVAC system in the part of the permanent structure having such HVAC system to provide climate control in a temporarily enclosed room within such permanent structure.
Temporarily erected structures, such as tents, may be provided with temporary HVAC climate control. Climate control for such structures known in the art is typically provided by a HVAC unit used for that specific purpose. Having such a separate HVAC unit can be costly, and can reduce extra carrying capacity of vehicles used to transport the structure to its location of use. What is needed is a device to enable climate control within temperary structure that can use a vehicular HVAC system for such purpose.